Traced by DNA, men face charges for Trumbull ATM robbery

By Daniel Tepfer, Staff writer

Published 6:17 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

TRUMBULL -- Two Bridgeport men arrested for the brazen 2007 robbery in which an ATM was ripped from the wall of a local department store were linked to the crime through DNA found on the exploded airbags in their getaway car, police said.

The two men stole an ATM from the Target store on Hawley Lane just before it opened Feb. 13, 2007, according to police.

The men, who pried open the store doors with a crowbar, entered carrying a cordless reciprocating saw and mover's dollies, and threatened store employees with the saw, police said.

Then they cut the machine out of the wall and pushed it from the store on the dollies, police said. The ATM was loaded into a van that had been reported stolen in Norwalk and the pair fled, police said.

Officers spotted the van a short distance from the store and gave chase. The men abandoned the van on a nearby Route 8 entrance ramp and got into a sedan, which also had been stolen, and was driven by an accomplice following the van, police said.

Police pursued the sedan as it headed onto Route 8 driving the wrong way and onto the Merritt Parkway. At one point, the sedan crashed into a car driven by an off-duty Bridgeport police officer.

Then suspects fled on foot, managing to evade capture.

In the abandoned van, police recovered the ATM, which had not been emptied of cash.

The airbags in the sedan, activated on crash impact, were tested for DNA, and earlier this year, police said a match with both defendants' DNA was made. Franco is on probation for an earlier gun conviction and Hernandez has a prior burglary conviction. Police said both men had previously agreed to give DNA samples as part of an unrelated burglary investigation.

During the men's arraignment in Bridgeport Superior Court, Senior Assistant State's Attorney Nicholas Bove urged Judge Bruce Levin to hold them on high bonds because of the serious nature of the crime.

The judge agreed and ordered Franco held in lieu of $150,000 bond and Hernandez in lieu of $100,000 bond. He continued the case to Aug. 11.